The “New South” and the “Old West”

1. The “New South” and the “Old West” Failure to implement truly radical measures during reconstruction failed to truly help southern Blacks while thoroughly angering and alienating southern whites.

2. I. After Appomattox: The Ultimate Questions • How do you reconstruct the Union? • How far should the federal government go to insure Black freedom and civil rights?

3. II. Philosophies of Reconstruction • Presidential --quick restoration with minimal protection for southern Blacks • Congressional -- “loyal” southern governments to replace ex-confederates --Southern Blacks need basic rights of American citizenship

4. III. Presidential Reconstruction • Lincoln’s 10% plan • Battle over who had the power to reconstruct the Union • Andrew Johnson’s background --hated southern planters --no friend of Blacks • Johnson’s Reconstruction Plan (May, 1865)

5. IV. Radical Republicans Gain the Upper Hand • Johnson’s controversial vetoes • Johnson’s opposition to the 14th amendment • The “Swing Around the Circle” (1866) • Republicans won veto-proof majorities in the 1866 election

6. V. Congressional Reconstruction (Begins in 1867) • Reconstruction Act of 1867 • Military rule of the south • Readmission of states with guarantees of Black suffrage • Exclusion of ex-Confederates from government office • Radicals wanted redistribution of land to Blacks—too radical

7. VI. The Impeachment Crisis • Johnson tries to obstruct congressional reconstruction with executive privilege • Tenure of Office Act • Johnson tries to remove Secretary of War Stanton • Impeachment and Trial in the Senate • Process neutralized Johnson

8. VII. Reconstruction in the South • A Condition of Ruin • “Forty Acres and a Mule” • Blacks resist gang labor after the War • Development of Sharecropper system • Black Codes • The Segregated South • Freedmen faced violence if they tried to vote

9. VIII. The Southern Republican Party • Hastily organized for 1868 elections • Three constituencies: --southern Blacks --northern businessmen --poor, white farmers • Some success, some corruption • Blacks held only limited political offices in the south

10. IX. The Fifteenth Amendment • Highpoint of Reconstruction era • Ratified in 1870 • Ambiguous wording allowed the future use of literacy tests, poll taxes, and property requirements • Worked to divide the feminist movement

11. X. Grant and the Retreat from Reconstruction • Rise of the Ku Klux Klan between 1868-1872 • Inconsistent use of federal troops to protect Black voters • Northern disenchantment with “propping up” corrupt southern state governments • Open southern appeal to white supremacy after 1872

12. X. Retreat from Reconstruction (cont.) • Grant administration facing charges of corruption -- Credit Mobilier scandal • Radical Republicans dying or out of office • Civil service reform replaces Black civil rights as the major political issue of the time

13. XI. The Compromise of 1877 • The election of 1876 • Tilden vs. Hayes • Disputed votes in the electoral college • Electoral commission fell under Republican control • Hayes’ victory in exchange for southern “home rule” • Eliminates Republican party in the south • Presidency of Hayes

14. XII. The “New South” • Redemption governments • Laissez-faire policies and white supremacy • Northern industry attracted to no taxes and low wages for workers • Corrupt governments

15. XII. “The New South” (cont.) • Lynchings common • Poor whites neglected just as much as Blacks • Some Blacks continue to vote until the 1890’s • Supreme Court decisions between 1875-1896 gutted Reconstruction --Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

16. XII. “The New South” (cont.) • Signs of sectional healing: Battlefield reunions • Sectional reconciliation made possible by northern abandonment of Black rights • “Lost Cause” myth also helps reconcile the two regions • Blacks bore the burden of sectional reconciliation

17. XIII. “New South” Economic Growth • Increase in southern cotton mills • Growth of southern tobacco industry --Duke family • Thriving Lumber industry • Other southern industries

18. XIV. Voices in Opposition to Southern Racism • Booker T. Washington • W.E.B. DuBois --The Niagara Movement (1905) • Ida Wells • Henry McNeal Turner • Frances E. W. Harper

19. XV. “The Old West” • Competing perceptions of the “Old West” • Best to view the “Old West” as a series of frontiers • Geography and climate played a huge role in this area

20. XVI. Mining the West • Scattering of settlements in non-agricultural areas • History of western strikes • Deadwood, South Dakota • Admission of new western states

21. XVII. Western Indian Wars • Life and disunity of the western tribes • The Chivington massacre (1864) • The Battle of the Little Big Horn (1876) • The retreat of the Nez Perces and Chief Joseph

22. XVII. Western Indian Wars (cont.) • Capture of Apache Chief Geronimo in 1886 • The Ghost Dance and Wounded Knee (1890) • The extinction of buffalo herds • Eastern concerns for Indian welfare --Helen Hunt Jackson’s A Century of Dishonor • The Dawes Act of 1867

23. XVIII. The Cattle Frontier and Cowboys • The history of cattle raising • The “average” cowboy • Mexican origins of the cowboy life • Abilene and Dodge City, Kansas • The disintegration of the cattle drive --Invention of barbed wire (1873)

24. XIX. The Farming Frontier • “Sodbusters”—the least romantic of the western frontiersmen • The importance of the railroad • Plains farmer faced a grim struggle with danger, adversity and monotony • Last Indian territory opened to settlement in 1889

25. XIX. The Farming Frontier (cont.) • Egalitarian gender roles on the frontier • The competition of “bonanza” farms • The western farmers’ conspiracy theory • 1890 U.S. census = “frontier closed” • The historical theory of Frederick Jackson Turner